The Essential Reading List to Master Facebook Marketing in 2017

We’ve scoured the web for the very best advice to have you mastering your Facebook marketing in no time. So no matter your Facebook skill level, we’ve got you covered. Get started on the essential Facebook reading list below!

And if you get stuck… well you know where to find us ?

Getting Started on Facebook

Sprout Social’s guide provides a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know when setting up a new business page. With plenty of screenshots and pro tips, they really simplify the process and make it easy for anyone to get started. In the guide they also take things one step further, providing basic advice around how to grow your audience, schedule posts, and measure performance. Check it out at the link below!

How to Start Your Facebook Business Page: A Complete Guide – Sprout Social Blog

Setting your Facebook Strategy

This super informative blog post from CoSchedule clearly outlines why you need a marketing strategy in place for Facebook and the best way to go about creating one. It’s packed full of screenshots, tips and examples to ensure you catch exactly what they’re putting down. Covering everything from goal setting and target personas, to post types, posting frequency and performance monitoring, this is not something you’re likely to get through in a couple of minutes but is well worth the read.

Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One (& How To Build It) – CoSchedule Blog

What to Post (Ideas & Tactics)

When you’re unsure what to post, Milk Bar Digital has a nice list of post ideas to help get those creative juices flowing and is a great piece to refer back to whenever you’re feeling a bit stuck. Bare in mind this is just a list and doesn’t give you any examples or explanation. But hey, Google search can provide extra information on any of the ideas listed 😉

44 Ideas of What to Post on Your Business Facebook Page – Milk Bar Digital

For more in-depth discussion and examples around post tactics and what you can do to drive increased engagement, Hubspot and Social Media Examiner provide plenty of great advice in the articles below.

The Anatomy of a Successful Facebook Post – Hubspot

11 Ways to Boost Facebook Engagement for Small Businesses – Social Media Examiner

Video and Facebook

Considering there’s already more than 100 million hours of Facebook videos watched every day (Yes. ONE HUNDRED MILLION HOURS in ONE DAY), video marketing through Facebook is something you’ll want to get a jump on this year.

With this in mind, we thought you may want some video-specific advice to help explain why this year is all about video and the different ways you can incorporate it into your Facebook strategy.

BuzzSumo gives a great recap on the data that’s proving the power of video on Facebook in the article below. If you need to convince someone as to why you want to walk around with a video camera at the office, this will help you get your stats straight.

New Facebook Share Data Reveals Why Video Is Key To Your Content Strategy – BuzzSumo

Social Media Examiner unravels exactly how you can use video on Facebook. This is great for informing strategic decisions around what to film and post on your page.

8 Ways to Use Facebook Video for More Engagement – Social Media Examiner

You’ll also want to check out Hubspot’s article on how to use Facebook Live. The Facebook Live feature – which basically allows you to live video stream to your Facebook followers – was only released last year and is already proving to be serious engagement fuel for those who know how to use it so I’d highly recommend having a look. Plus, considering you can go live on Facebook from your iPhone, it’s an affordable and accessible strategy that can work wonders.

How to Use Facebook Live: A Complete Guide – Hubspot Blog

Boosted Posts & Facebook Advertising

The paid options available on Facebook are pretty darn powerful and surprisingly affordable at this stage so if you’re ready to take the next step in your Facebook marketing, you’ll want to wrap your head around how to boost posts and setup ad campaigns. (HINT: It’s not as hard as you might think!)

I’d suggest dipping your toes into the paid pool with some boosted posts before diving head first into the ad campaign world. Kim Garst from Boom! Social provides some great tips around when, why, and how to boost posts for the best results.

Facebook Ads – 3 Ways to Boost a Post Like a Pro! – Boom! Social

If you’re a complete newbie in the online ad space and serious about getting stuck into Facebook ads, you can’t beat the massive knowledge base built by AdEspresso. Their beginner’s guide to Facebook advertising unpacks all the essentials in a user-friendly style that feels more like a paid online course than a free guide. Definitely worth the read!

The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Advertising – AdEspresso

While not quite as comprehensive as AdEspresso, worthy mentions go out to Hubspot and Buffer for their how-to guides on Facebook advertising. They’re well set out, easy to follow and packed full of helpful screenshots, tips and advice. If you don’t want to spend time going through everything on AdEspresso and are confident you’ll pick things up pretty quickly, I’d recommend giving these posts a read.

How to Create Facebook Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Facebook – Hubspot
The Complete, Always-Updated Guide to Facebook Advertising – Buffer Blog

It’s also worth mentioning that Facebook has its own e-learning centre which anyone with a Facebook profile can access. They cover a lot of different areas and are great for learning about the wide range of features available and how to go about using them. However, I felt they were pretty time-intensive to get through and didn’t really deliver the same level of insight into ad strategy. If you’re getting confused about Facebook advertising options, this should definitely help clarify things a bit.

Click here to go to Facebook’s e-learning centre.

Measuring Performance

All the stunning Facebook posts in the world mean absolutely nothing if you can’t measure performance and prove their value. Why pour so much effort into something just to turn a blind eye to the end result of all your hard work?

Sometimes interpreting the data can be a little overwhelming and downright confusing, but Razor Social does a great job of explaining the basic metrics you need to know and where to find the data in Facebook Insights.

Facebook Insights: A Detailed Guide to Facebook Analytics – Razor Social

There are also a tonne of tools that can help you measure Facebook performance, but I’d recommend taking the time to understand Facebook Insights and what the metrics mean before forking out $$ on expensive tracking tools. Afterall if you don’t know what to do with the data, you’ll just be looking at worthless numbers.

Bookmark-worthy Resources

Lastly, we couldn’t go past chucking these resources down. They’re bound to come in handy!

The Ultimate Guide On Facebook Dimensions (For ALL Page & Feed Images) – Post Planner
Your Handy Guide to Facebook Marketing Terms – Sprout Social

Now, Time to Start Facebook Marketing

How was that? Not too painful, I hope!

You should be feeling empowered with all that hard earned Facebook wisdom you’ve gained from the essential resources above and ready to smash your Facebook marketing. There’s always going to be more to learn but the best way to learn is to just get in there and have a go – so please, get into it guys and let us know how you go!

If you make a mistake, think of it as a learning experience and move forward. Remember in the world of social media, those willing to take risks and try things before everyone else are often the ones who win. Be brave and good luck with all your Facebook marketing efforts this year!